# 1937–38 Duquesne Dukes men's ice hockey season

The 1937–38 Duquesne Dukes men's ice hockey season was the inaugural season of play for the program.

## Season

With the backing of Al Sutphin, owner of the Cleveland Arena, and John Harris, owner of the Duquesne Gardens, Duquesne was a founding member of the Penn-Ohio Intercollegiate Hockey League. With Father Louis A. Deitrich heading the new program, a roster was assembled mostly from the previous year's championship club team. The team's first scheduled game was cancelled when the University of Akron wasn't able to continue with the league. Instead, the team played its first game against Pittsburgh on December 14. The game was attended by about 1,000 fans and saw Duquesne win their first ever varsity hockey game.
Duquesne didn't play for several weeks afterwards due to the Christmas break, but they returned with a second victory, this time over Carnegie Tech in mid-January. The team got a wake-up call in early February when they lost consecutive games and dropped to 2nd in their division. Since Pitt was also a very strong team that season, the Dukes couldn't afford too many losses if they wanted a division crown. They responded with an inspired brand of hockey and won their final 7 games of the regular season. In that time, Duquesne provided the biggest upset of the Penn-Ohio League by defeating John Carroll who, until that point, had been undefeated.
In the program's first playoff game, Duquesne fought a close affair with Pittsburgh but were able to triumph 1–0 over the Panthers. Because the league had decided on a two-game total-goal series, the win didn't give the Dukes much of a cushion and they couldn't afford to lost the second game. Unfortunately, Pitt rallied and a hat-trick from Bob Schooley gave the Panthers a 3–0 win and ended Duquesne's season on a sour note.

## Standings

1937–38 Penn-Ohio Intercollegiate Hockey League standings vte :
| | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Conference | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| | GP | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA |
| East ||||||||||||||||
| Duquesne † | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 41 | 14 | 14 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 42 | 17 |
| Pittsburgh ~ | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 19 | – | – | 17 | 10 | 6 | 1 | – | – |
| Carnegie Tech | 12 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 16 | 29 | 12 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 16 | 29 |
| West ||||||||||||||||
| John Carroll †~* | 12 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 54 | 12 | 16 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 64 | 16 |
| Western Reserve | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Fenn | 12 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Baldwin Wallace | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| † indicates division regular season champion ~ indicates division tournament champion * indicates conference tournament champion ||||||||||||||||

## Schedule and results

| Date | Opponent | Site | Result | Record |
| Regular Season |||||
| December 14 | vs. Pittsburgh | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | W 3–1 | 1–0–0 (1–0–0) |
| January 19 | vs. Carnegie Tech | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | W 4–3 | 2–0–0 (2–0–0) |
| January ? | Fenn | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | W 5–2 | 3–0–0 (3–0–0) |
| February ? | John Carroll | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | L 0–1 | 3–1–0 (3–1–0) |
| February 9 | vs. Pittsburgh | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | L 0–1 | 3–2–0 (3–2–0) |
| February 17 | at Western Reserve | Cleveland Arena • Cleveland, Ohio | W 2–1 | 4–2–0 (4–2–0) |
| February 25 | at Baldwin Wallace | Cleveland Arena • Cleveland, Ohio | W 11–0 | 5–2–0 (5–2–0) |
| March 2 | vs. Carnegie Tech | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | W 4–2 | 6–2–0 (6–2–0) |
| March 5 | at John Carroll | Cleveland Arena • Cleveland, Ohio | W 2–1 | 7–2–0 (7–2–0) |
| March 6 | Baldwin Wallace | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | W 4–0 | 8–2–0 (8–2–0) |
| March 11 | Fenn | Cleveland Arena • Cleveland, Ohio | W 3–1 | 9–2–0 (9–2–0) |
| March 12 | Western Reserve | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | W 3–1 | 10–2–0 (10–2–0) |
| Penn-Ohio League Playoffs |||||
| March 21 | vs. Pittsburgh* | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Eastern Division Game 1) | W 1–0 | 11–2–0 |
| March 22 | vs. Pittsburgh* | Duquesne Gardens • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Eastern Division Game 2) | L 0–3 | 11–3–0 |
| Duquesne Lost Series 1–3 |||||
| *Non-conference game. |||||